When Women’s Art Refuses to Gather Dust: The Quite Revolution Inside Inside Zimbabwe’s Creative Sector

By Kudakwashe Ruzive

In a world increasingly measured in clicks, streams, followers and viral moments, there is something almost rebellious about an artist sitting patiently with a piece of discarded fabric, a needle, a cable, a piece of wood or a thread of yarn and turning what others might throw away into a story.

At the Zimbabwe-Germany Society in Harare, that rebellion took shape through Women’s Works: Celebrating Women in the Creative Sector, an exhibition hosted by Chengetedza Arts Association with support from the Embassy of Switzerland under the SSADZA grant and through K Media Africa.

It was, on the surface, an exhibition.

But beneath the embroidery, batik, crochet, pyrography and applique was a much bigger question: what happens to Zimbabwean creativity when talent exists, but the platforms, markets and resources to sustain it do not?

For Moline Katiyo-Mayhew, a grant advisor, visual artist and founder and director of Chengetedza Arts Association, the answer cannot simply be another exhibition.

“We want to see artists moving beyond exhibitions, we want them to access markets, trade fairs, festivals and runways, so that they can build sustainable livelihoods from their work,” said Moline-Mayhew.

Zimbabwe has never suffered from a shortage of creative talent. The challenge is often what happens after the talent has been discovered.

An artist may produce an extraordinary piece of work, but without exposure, management, financing, market access or professional networks, that work can remain trapped within a small circle of people who happen to see it.

The exhibition attempted to challenge that cycle.

The programme had been running for six months, creating opportunities for women who traditionally struggle to secure platforms to exhibit and sell their work.

The definition of marginalisation was deliberately broader than financial disadvantage.

Moline said many participants came from marginalised communities without the financial means to stage exhibitions themselves. But she also pointed to another barrier artists who may have the ability and resources to create, yet lack managers, platforms and knowledge of where to take their products.

“Some artists have the capacity to produce, but they do not know where to take their products,” she said.

“They need platforms, management and guidance to connect their creativity to real opportunities.”

That is where the exhibition becomes more than an art event.

It becomes a conversation about the architecture of Zimbabwe’s creative economy.

Moline-Mayhew’s own work offered a striking metaphor for that conversation.

Working in mixed media, she uses embroidery, discarded fabrics and cables, many of them remnants from her fashion designs.

She does not throw them away.

Instead, they return in another form. What appears to be waste becomes material.

What appears to be an ordinary object becomes art.

And what might otherwise disappear becomes part of a visual narrative.

Around her were other women working in equally distinctive forms.

A pyrographer used wood burning to create images. A crocheter transformed yarn into portraits.

An applique artist used fabric to tell stories, including imagery of village women gathered around a well.

A batik printmaking artist added another layer to the visual tapestry.

Together, the works demonstrated something increasingly important in contemporary African art: culture does not have to remain frozen in the past to remain authentic.

It can evolve. It can absorb modern materials, techniques and ideas while still carrying memory, identity and heritage.

The village well, for example, is not merely an image.

It can represent community, conversation, women’s social spaces and intergenerational knowledge.

Mbira music performed at the exhibition carried a similar cultural resonance.

When the gallery meets the stage

The presence of musician Gemma Griffiths added another dimension to the evening.

Her attendance, alongside performances by a local mbira band, created an intersection between visual art and music — two disciplines that are often discussed separately even though they share the same creative ecosystem.

Music in Zimbabwe is not simply entertainment but it is a vehicle through which language, memory, identity and social experience travel.

The Mbira, in particular, carries centuries of Zimbabwean cultural expression, while contemporary musicians such as Griffiths operate in a world of digital distribution, streaming platforms, international collaborations and rapidly changing audiences.

The meeting of the gallery and the stage therefore presented a useful picture of what Zimbabwe’s creative sector could become.

A packed exhibition can generate excitement. A famous musician can attract attention. A beautiful artwork can receive applause.

But applause does not necessarily pay rent.

That is perhaps the most important challenge raised by the six-month programme.

If Zimbabwe wants its creative sector to contribute meaningfully to employment, cultural preservation and economic development, artists must be able to move from creation to commercialisation without losing ownership of their identity and work.

The exhibition reportedly attracted a strong audience despite several other events taking place in Harare on the same night.

For Moline-Mayhew, the response was revealing.

“We were surprised by the turnout. Some young people told us that they would like to be part of such programmes, but they did not know that these opportunities existed.”

That response raises another uncomfortable question:

How many talented Zimbabwean artists remain invisible simply because they do not know where the door is?

The call from young attendees for an open platform where artists can be selected for future programmes suggests that the demand for creative opportunities may be wider than existing platforms can accommodate.

This is significant in an era when social media has seemingly democratised exposure.

Anyone can showcase fashion.

But digital visibility can also create an illusion of opportunity.

Being seen is not necessarily being represented.

Being followed is not necessarily being supported.

Going viral is not the same as building a career.

That is why physical platforms, mentorship, management, exhibitions, festivals and market linkages remain important.

From culture to employment

Chengetedza Arts Association’s ambition, according to her, extends beyond displaying artwork.

The programme seeks markets locally and internationally, opportunities at trade fairs and festivals, runway exposure and ultimately self-sustaining careers for artists.

“We are not only interested in putting work on the wall. We want to create a pathway where artists can sell, collaborate, access new markets and sustain themselves through their creativity.”

That is perhaps where the cultural argument becomes an economic one.

If an artist can sell consistently, hire an assistant, purchase materials, collaborate with another creator and eventually employ others, art has moved beyond personal expression.

It has entered the economy.

For the nation, that possibility is particularly important.

The country possesses a deep reservoir of cultural material music, dance, fashion, sculpture, crafts, storytelling, visual art and indigenous knowledge.

The question is no longer simply whether Zimbabwe has culture.

It is whether Zimbabwe can build systems capable of allowing its culture to support the people who create and preserve it.

The exhibition offered one small response.

The latest exhibition also built on lessons from an earlier event organised by Chengetedza Arts Association, where artists were brought together to share their work, engage audiences and explore ways of connecting creative production with wider cultural and commercial opportunities.

That previous gathering showed that artists needed more than a once-off platform: they needed continued visibility, stronger networks and practical support after the event ended. It also demonstrated the value of bringing different disciplines into one space, allowing visual artists, musicians, designers and cultural practitioners to exchange ideas and identify possible collaborations.

The experience helped shape the current programme’s emphasis on sustained engagement, open calls and pathways to markets rather than treating an exhibition as an isolated occasion.

The unfinished masterpiece

Calling the exhibition a success may be justified by the audience response, the range of artists represented and the enthusiasm generated around the event.

There are the questions that determine whether an exhibition is merely an evening of beautiful objects or the beginning of something more enduring.

At the Zimbabwe-Germany Society, women brought embroidery, wood, yarn, fabric, batik, cables and stories into one space.

The mbira answered with sound.

Music answered with performance.

The audience answered with attention.

But the larger challenge remains: turning that attention into opportunity.

For Zimbabwe’s creative sector, perhaps that is the next exhibition not one held on a wall but one built through markets, collaborations, employment and sustainable careers.

And if that happens, the discarded fabric, the carved wood, the woven thread and the ancient mbira will have achieved something more powerful than applause.

They will have helped prove that African culture does not merely belong in museums or memories bur it can live, evolve, employ, inspire and compete in the modern world.

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